Ahh Dawson's Creek light of my high school years, fire of adolescent loins. Remember how scandalized everyone was when this show first aired on the network known for gooey family-affiars like Seventh Heaven or thinly veiled lesbian fantasies like Zena and Buffy? Dawson's Creek was a revelation because it featured teenagers talking about sex"¦.using absurdly pretentious words"¦.analyzing through jaded and cynical eyes the trials and tribulations of those tumultuous teenage years. It's funny that despite all their introspective cynicism and flair for irony the characters never ceased to take themselves less seriously. They were, on paper, no more then stock characters from every teen movie themselves: Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) was the wholesome, virginal, tomboy next-door, trying to sort out her newly hormonally-charged feelings for her best buddy Dawson Leary(James Van Der Beek), the ultimate film geek. Obsessed with Spielberg and all things boyish and charming, the onslaught of teenage hood throws Dawson not into the willing arms of Ms. Potter, but to the new girl, the bad girl, the blonde-with-a-past embodied by New York transplant Jennifer Lindley (Michelle Williams) Throw in bad-boy/class clown-with-the-heart-of-gold Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) and you get the perfect set-up for sending high school hearts a-flutter. I don't know about you, but Thursday morning, the angst-ridden sagas of Dawson and Co. buzzed through the halls of my high school.

And how long did it take before everyone, including the writers realized that Katie Holmes was just so much hotter then Michelle Williams and that caddish, charming Pacey was a far more title-worthy character then drippy, winsome Dawson? By the second season the show had shifted the focus off the saga of Dawson and Joey and added the characters of strife-ridden siblings Jack and Andy Mcphee into the mix. Producers struggled to come up with a solid persona for Jen to embody after sex-goddess didn't work out. Poor Michelle Williams had to endure being the slut, the drunk, suicidal and finally the grungy, feminist rebel who takes on the cheerleading squad. In the end, Ms. Williams proved the strongest actor of the bunch if only for her ability to pull off the most groan-worthy lines and ridiculous character arcs.

And the lines got progressively worse as the show progressed. Kevin Williamson, the original writer, was known for his Scream trilogy, witty send-ups of teen-horror-flick clichés and in his hands the Capeside teens managed to transcend their by-the-book character descriptions. He was responsible for all the snap, crackle and pop of the first season; but once he left the show, citing 'creative differences' with the producers, things at the creek got sappier, more contrived and more melodramatic. The irreverent wit was decreasing rapidly and the show vacillated wildly between being a stage on which its cast of-next-big-things could showcase their Abercrombie-catalogue good looks and a "moral show" which tackled the big issues like

mental illness, homosexuality and God.

Luckily season three (i.e., when Pacey and Joey get together) still retains some of the old Williamson spunk, but there's an awful lot of posing and pontificating that has to be endured. If you're a true Dawson's junkie you'll enjoy the twenty-three episode set and the added bonus of it being a DVD is that you can skip right past the terrible, derivative-to-the-point-of-being-gag-worthy Blair Witch episode (Escape from Witch Island) and you don't have to endure the debacle of the change in opening music tune. Hopefully someone was fired for the decision to nix Paula Cole's "I don't want to wait" and replace it with something so God-awful I don't even know the name. It's also fun to watch episode after episode in a giant emotive marathon; once you get into the rhythm of the dialogue and become utterly immersed in Andy's terrible fashion sense you can't help but get sucked back into the lives, however absurdly rendered, of our little Capeside chums. But in case you're strapped for time, here's a run-down of the episodes, helpful for deciding which ones are really crucial watching and which will just make you roll your eyes until their stuck. Enjoy.

1. Like A Virgin

You remember this one. The boat, the party, the tryout, the Dawson/Joey bedroom scene ("I can be sexual Dawson") and Joey's black bra. It's full of all the moments that made this show the subject of all the gasps and giggles in middle school hallways. Begins after the summer, we see the various fixtures of the show back in Capeside, all juniors in high school. Dawson's spent the summer in Pennsylvania avoiding Joey, who can't seem to get over him. Dawson meets Eve (subtle) on the bus and then again in a strip bar. The pixie-haired vixen seduces him into taking his father's boat, and 'distracts him long enough to crash it into the dock in full view of a scandalized Ms. Potter. Jen launches a scathing diatribe against the popular girls at cheerleading trials.

Nothing too drastic has changed since season two except that Jen has morphed from sex-pot to frumpy outcast, Pacey looks in a mirror and sees Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" and Jack has just gotten cuter. And the creeksters still deliver witty, overly-introspective sound bytes like:
"You have got to stop living from the neck up"

"Anything that's worth anything is dangerous"

"Verbalizing and angsting instead of living"

"As large a part of me wanted her, a larger part of me knew that now wasn't the right time for us"

More importantly the season sets us up for the eventual romance of Pacey and Joey by having Dawson ask Pacey to look after her emotional well-being after he rejects her.

2. Homecoming

Another set-up episode in which Pacey finds out that Andie has been cheating on him while she was

in the psychiatric institution and Dawson and Eve's tryst continues. Jack clashes with his father and then realizes he can play football which makes everything better. We also briefly meet freshmen Henry (Michael Pitt) whose obsession with Jen is already borderline creepy.

3. None of the Above

Dawson fights the inner battle between the whore/virgin and Eve solidifies her position as biblical temptress by offering Dawson not only sex but an apple and a copy of the PSATs. And Joey battles her chauvinistic boss. Dialogue is getting progressively worse: ("Fate tossed you that ball Jack!"-Ms. Lindley) Joey and Pacey get cuter and closer.

4. Home Movies

We see Dawson and Joey's first meeting when they're both so young and innocent. Jen is the only one can pull off the dialogue. Ostensibly the main thrust of the plot is Dawson's inner turmoil as to whether to broadcast his documentary about Jack being Cape side's token gay football player. But the real plot is the developing Hepburn-Tracy romance between Pacey and Joey. The only thing really notable about this episode is its gradual lapse into cheesiness and cliché, setting up a pattern that will only get more apparent as the seasons progress.

5. Indian Summer

Eve reappears in this episode and another facet is added to her character; she becomes "girl with a mysterious past." As Dawson and Pacey try to discover her secret, Henry embarks on a cringingly embarrassing pursuit of former "blonde with a past", Jen. The
music in this episode reaches new heights of cheesy badness, with sultry soft-core porn jazz playing as Dawson and Pacey spy Eve's silhouette on the docks of Capeside. Eve's big secret is a tad contrived but you probably won't see it coming.

6. Secrets and Lies

Jen has become Cape side's most unlikely homecoming queen and now must organize a tea for all the former homecoming queens even though she would rather gag herself with a spoon. Of course she does something wild and rebellious, and of course it all ends up just peachy, this is "Dawson's Creek" for crissakes.

7. Escape from Witch Island

Just skip it. This sucks and all that happens is Jen and Pacey decide to try out that thing that all the kids are doing nowadays, I believe they call it being "friends with benefits."

8. Guess who's Coming to Dinner?

Don't get excited, it's not a black person (We don't get more then one black character per episode until later in the season, and even then, they're related) But do get excited because it's Jen's mom and Thanksgiving offers the creeksters the opportunity to have another J.Crew catalogue fantasy come to life with a scenic meal and lots of sweaters.

9. Four to Tango

Apparently Pacey and Joey have been taking dancing lessons. Okay. Dawson suspects Pacey of fooling around with Joey when he's really trying, half-heartedly to fool around with Jen. It's a good episode

only because the scenes with Pacey and Jen remind us why we like them so much more then the morose Dawson and the self-obsessed Joey. (Must everything be about her?)

10. First Encounters of the Close Kind

The gang goes to Boston. Dawson's in a film festival and Joey and Andy have junior orientation at "nameless prestigious Cambridge Ivy League university. (it's gotta be UMass) Don't be fooled by the description on the DVD foldout. Jack's exploration of Boston's "gay scene" involves one five minute scene at a gay bar that is not likely to blow anyone away with its realistic portrayal of the gay life-style.
Tangent: this show's most interesting portrayal of homosexuality is almost purely subtext: while Jack struggles are poignant and well-rendered, the really interesting homoerotic subtext still exists between Dawson and Pacey and Pacey's older brother Doug maintains that barely contained rage of a closeted cop with realistic sarcasm and denial.

11. Barefoot at Cape fest

Two new characters emerge from their bit parts on earlier episodes: Principle Green's daughter (aforementioned 'second black character') who becomes both a rival and sympathetic ear to Dawson. Gay prep-schooler Ethan (poor man's Jordan Catalano) who Jack met on the bus back from Boston offers him friendship and maybe more. Jen looks hot in blue scarves.

12. A Weekend in the Country

Joey and her sister have opened up a bed and breakfast with Pacey's help and the gang all rallies around the Potter sisters to try and trick a travel-writer into giving it a good review. Episode is full of schmaltzy lines ("You know the smell of snow"¦.that's my favorite smell") and may have viewers gritting their teeth over Joey's seeming blindness to Pacey's increasing affection for her. And Grams. Any Grams is too much Grams.

13. Northern Lights

Joey gets a little would-be intellectual action from a guy she met at aforementioned un-named university and misses the opening night of "Barefoot in the Park" featuring Pacey in the lead and Andie as the director. May cause viewers to wonder when Joey became such a prude. Little else happens except more borderline insane-stalker behavior from Michael Pitt's Henry. He's just so dewy and creepy.

14. The Valentine's Day Massacre.

More irrational behavior from Joey, poor girl, her character is given no motivation for the things she does. Suddenly she's "the angel on Dawson's shoulder?" remember when she hated his guts for turning her father in, or refusing to sleep with her, or trying to sleep with Eve"¦..? Oh well, it's all just a ploy for making her the perfect counterpart to Pacey's devil. We get Jack's annoying ex-girlfriend who is currently devastated over her last boyfriend turning out gay. Oh so contrived. Much hemming and hawing ensues. Pacey persuades Dawson to take advantage of her shaky emotional state and try to be a 'normal teenage boy.' Obviously that goes brilliantly. The gang rides golf

carts with no apparent realization of how ridiculous they look. The best thing about the episode is Pacey's drunken ramblings about the Dawson/Joey affair.

15. Crime and Punishment

Andie's an emotional wreck over cheating on the PSATs (She was the one who made off with Eve's metaphorical apple) and smug rich-asshole who we met at last week's party episode but is apparently a fixture at Capeside high destroys Joey's mural. Guess who seeks to avenge her?

16. To Green with Love

The gang gets political when the elitist bastards of Capeside threaten to take down Principal Green for suspending smug-rich-white jerk (with family connections) lots of ever-so-subtle racial tension and suddenly Sister Bessie's ostensibly black boyfriend becomes a fixture on the show (oh yeah, he's been there all along, the camera just never panned to his face to show his pained reaction to episodic strife) We also get to see the other, less photogenic denizens off Cape side High, many of whom, in some obvious casting mishap actually look like high scholars.

Joey's college boy AJ re-emerges on the scene long enough to cause Pacey to gaze woundedly in Joey's direction as she ignores him. A battle between the just and the unjust ensues. Guess who wins the good fight.

17. Cinderella Story.

Joey goes to visit AJ at Harvard (lets call it what it is) and because he's boring the writers brilliantly bring in the character of his soul-mate/muse/best friend who just happens to be gorgeous, smart and witty in a familiarly self-deprecating way. Joey sees that he's the Dawson to her"¦.well"¦.Joey and leaves him to pursue his true meant-to-be, and finds herself getting a ride back from"¦.guess who???? Jen re-appears on the scene as everyone's favorite listening ear. (Add 'relationship guru' to her character list) and Dawson's mom struggles with opening a restaurant. (Let's be serious, do we care?) Pacey is also forced to mentor dually maddening and adorable Jonathon Lipinski ("The human head weighs eight pounds"-Jerry Maguire)

18. Neverland

The aforementioned homoerotic tension between Dawson and Pacey culminates as "the boys" go camping in their old fort and reminisce about the glory days of their friendship. Pacey wants to tell Dawson about Joey but Dawson waxes poetic on 'his friendships being the only thing he has faith in any more" and blah blah blah. Pacey chickens out.

19. Stolen Kisses.

Dawson's aunt looks younger then he is and is a terrible artist. She seems eerily invested in hooking Joey and Dawson back up and bitches when she catches Joey and Pacey having guilt-ridden kisses in the backyard. A wince-worthy Karaoke scene and Joey thinly veiled metaphor for Pacey's penis ("in the bed, your arm brushed me, I felt it Pace"¦I felt it) showcase the best and worst elements of this show.

20. The longest day.

The longest episode. One day shown "Rashoman" style over and over from different viewpoints. Use the handy 'chapter' feature on

the DVD and watch just the first and last versions. They're all you need. This should be the juiciest episode, i.e., the one where Dawson finds out, but instead it's just excruciating. And Dawson has begun to descend, morally, as a character. His self-righteous wrath over Joey and Pacey's betrayal seems selfish to the point of absurd. Didn't he reject her? Do the writers want us to hate him? Isn't this supposed to be his creek?

21. Show Me Love

Also known as Dawson becomes the antichrist. When we are actually rooting for the main character to drown in a freak sailing accident then we know the show as a problem. Dawson reaches new heights of ridiculousness as he tries to prove he's "the better man" for Joey and Joey flails and emotes and has six or seven nervous breakdowns. Pacey broods, Andie whines, Jack has retreated to peripheral gay character and Dawson's parents are somehow getting back together again. Whoopee.

21. The Anti-Prom

We're back in political turmoil land as Jack is refused a ticket to the prom (okay, the show may be shot in South Carolina but it's supposed to take place in a little Northeastern Town. Can you imagine that happening in Massachusetts?) Dawson organizes an "anti-prom" in protest and invites Joey. Pacey shows up with Andie and the writers yank Jen's precarious arc of moral soundness out from under her by having her get all freaked out about having sex with Henry (poor kid, he thought that dating the town slut would have him de-virginized by sophomore year no problem) Episode ends with everyone hating each other.

23. True Love

Grams has way too many lines in this episode, but other then that it's a pretty satisfying and rather surprising (if absurd) season finale. Joey is blown like a fragile leaf in the wind between Dawson and Pacey; Pacey has determined that he must spend the summer in Hemingway-esque recluse aboard his newly finished boat. (Actually sailing, not just sitting at the dock) And from the labels on the boxes he hauls on deck, he will, apparently, be living on rice crispy treats. Not a bad way to go. Gail and Mitch renew their vows as Dawson grapples with the guilt of holding Joey back from her dream, again (he prevented her from going to France last summer) His ultimate decision leaves him clinging to the dock and wailing. Satisfying.

Jack and Jen try and make up for missed opportunities, Jen with Henry, Jack with Ethan. Guess which one is successful. The gay kids just can't catch a break. We're supposed to be happy that Jack is on good terms with his day, but seriously, this kid needs to get laid. I do think this was the first time network television saw two guys kiss. One small step for Kerr Smith, one giant leap for mankind.

Ultimately the season

finale of Dawson's Creek is a perfect example of what makes Dawson's Creek what it is. Like high school, it may have been painful, insipid, contrived and condescending, ridiculous and often maddening, but don't we all get that goose-bumpy feeling when we look back on it still? We may be nostalgic for something that never really existed to begin with, but it doesn't make us miss it any less.

As for the special DVD features, don’t get too excited. The interactive tour of Capeside is as boring and superflous as it sounds, and Kerr Smith is the only creekster to offer his voiceover for the commentary. As for the added bonus of additional music, the music in this season was one of the true low points. It just makes you long for the original opening ballad and the cheeky and exuberant chart-topper of the month featured in earlier episode in earlier seasons.

Series Grade: B

DVD Grade: B+

Overall Grade: B